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Procedural comes up quite often. Substantive comes up even more often. Both words have been used to distinguish two types of contract unconscionability. There are crimes that are substantive. There are procedural issues, sometimes. But I do not know what these two words mean.

What do they mean?? Are they total antonyms, or just two different, unrelated words? I am just very confused because the words seem pop up randomly and I can never get a firm definition for my brain to understand. What really confused me was the assortment of definitions that different resources use to distinguish substantive and procedural unconscionability.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone can focus on the unconscionability topic, but I am mainly asking what the difference between these two words are in general, and their definitions.

Thanks,
Peter

Procedural, meaning process, is the process that parties/court must follow to reach an outcome.

Substantive is the law that the parties/court must follow to decide the outcome.

Procedural changes impact substantive outcomes. E.g., Twombly/Iqbal - if the procedure to file a complaint in court requires a lot of evidence, someone who has a valid claim but cannot get the sufficient amount of evidence without discovery may never be able to assert their claim in court, and their substantive right will never be vindicated.